‘Police powers’ mulled for DA vs agricultural smuggling

MANILA, Philippines — A committee leader in the House of Representatives hinted at giving “police powers” to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to solve the country’s multibillion-peso smuggling of agricultural products.

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, who chairs the House committee on ways and means, made the suggestion to ensure that “we still have anti-smuggling measures even after the goods pass through our ports.”

“It adds another layer of protection from smuggled goods, for our domestic agriculture sector,” Salceda said, likening the proposed police powers for the DA in going after smugglers to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)’s mandate in pursuing tax evaders.

“The secretary of agriculture should be able to pursue cases against agricultural smugglers. Agricultural smuggling is a serious, existential threat to local agriculture and food security. We cannot allow some gap in the law to prevent us from fighting the problem,” he said.

Salceda said a DA unit could be solely tasked to “help address the concerns of the DA that the Department of Justice may not have the bandwidth to expeditiously pursue cases filed on agricultural smuggling.”

“I also want the DA unit to work with a strengthened Customs’ Intelligence and Investigation Service. That will help close the loopholes technical smugglers exploit,” he said.

Salceda asked Agriculture Secretary William Dar to “formalize his request for police powers” by sending a draft of the proposed measure, even as he himself is also drafting a proposed measure, urging DA officials for more inputs.

“I have already taken the initiative and we are filing that measure. But I also want the DA to see what works best given their hierarchy and needs,” he said.

Earlier, the House leader called on state prosecutors to file the non-bailable cases of economic sabotage against those behind agricultural smuggling in the country, which has deprived the government of billions of pesos in forgone revenues for decades now.

He made the request for DA police powers amid reports of P300 billion in palm oil products technically smuggled in Philippine markets.

Technical smuggling in palm oil products is done by declaring imports as crude palm oil, which is for animal consumption and not subject to value-added tax.

Salceda said the government should file the non-bailable charges of economic sabotage against these violators.

“Large-scale agricultural smuggling is the single gravest sin to Philippine society today,” he said, invoking the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act (Republic Act 10845).

“The law designates large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage,” he added.

Lacson’s solution

?Meanwhile, Sen. Panfilo Lacson vowed that, if elected president, he would solve the problems in agriculture by focusing on three important aspects – seeds, fertilizer and irrigation.

Speaking at a town meeting at the Abra Valley Grand Hotel, Lacson explained how he would address these three most common concerns of farmers.

“Fertilizer is very expensive now, isn’t it, because it is oil-based,” he said, citing how oil prices have continued to rise since Russia invaded Ukraine.

As a solution, he said the University of the Philippines-National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (UP-BIOTECH) must be given more funds to produce fertilizer.?

“They are now producing (fertilizer) because, in 2018, I will augment the budget there until 2022. I have already augmented more than P1.2 billion... now, they are producing tons upon tons of organic fertilizer, very cheap, compared to the imported oil-based fertilizer,” Lacson said. – Cecille Suerte Felipe